Oregon Department of Forestry officials said they expect severe fires early this year, due to dry conditions and extreme drought levels.
“We are expecting another severe fire season, especially since we’re heading into another drought year,” Tom Fields, ODF’s fire prevention coordinator, said. “We already have four out of 12 of our fire protection districts in fire season, which is very unusual.”
The Southwest Oregon District of the ODF, which includes Jackson and Josephine counties, declared its fire season on May 12. Klamath and Lake counties, Walker Range Fire Patrol Association and Dalles and Prineville units of the Central Oregon ODF district followed suit, declaring fire seasons on May 15. Douglas County will begin its fire season on May 28.
The U.S. drought monitor reports that over a quarter of Oregon has extreme drought conditions, increasing wildfire activity. More than 20% of Lane County is in extreme drought.
Fields said the drought has increased the potential for wildfires across the state. “Right now, things are very dry heading into fire season, and we’re already seeing that with farmers across the state,” he said. “There’s just no water.”
Oregon has had 250 fires in 2021; 38 of those occurred in Lane County, according to an ODF report. John Deegan, ODF wildland fire supervisor for the Western Lane District, said the district is “already looking into going into fire season far earlier than usual.”
“That’s because of some drought conditions,” Deegan said. “We’ve already been exposed to some hot, dry weather and a fair amount of prolonged, sustained windy days.”
He said windy days dry out grass and trees that could become fuels. This makes them more receptive to fire, making fires harder to contain..
Dan Gavin, a professor of geography at UO, said climate change contributes to droughts, and by association, fires, by melting snowpacks — compressed formations of snow on the ground. He said snowpacks help supply moisture in the ground for a longer time period. But, if a year doesn’t have much snow and it’s dry, “that window of opportunity for fire is much longer.”
Gavin said the drier conditions mean Oregon’s summers will soon resemble California’s.
Over the past decade, wildfires in Oregon have been increasingly aggressive, with over 2,000 fires burning last year. However, ODF officials said 2020 was an anomaly.
“It was a very unusual fire season in the fact that it was a normal fire season until Labor Day hit,” Fields said. “Then we saw that east wind event that hit the entire state over Labor Day weekend. It took fire that was on the landscape and created a lot of issues all over the state. Then that started a few other fires that created problems of their own as well. We haven’t seen a fire season like that at all in our history.”
Deegan said last year’s fires were very different in terms of their magnitude and the conditions they burned in. “It was really kind of a perfect brew of conditions that created the fires when it did,” he said.
Despite the unusual circumstances of last year’s fires, Deegan said things have gotten progressively worse in the wildfire area.
“The way the trends are, I think we can expect to see substantial fires in or around our community pretty pervasively for the future to come,” Deegan said.
However, people caused all 38 of Lane County’s fires this year.
“The one thing that we hope we can control is people,” Fields said.
Following ODF’s fire regulations, seasons and rules is very important to prevent wildfires this summer, he said.
Merrill Harrison, deputy fire marshal for Eugene Springfield Fire, said, “Defensible space is one of the quickest and easiest ways to protect yourself and your home from the threat of wildfire.”
Creating defensible space includes cleaning up and removing dead vegetation, keeping grass green and short and limbing trees to keep fires on the ground; limbing is the process of removing branches. It’s also important for fire prevention, according to Fields, since debris burning is the leading cause of human-caused wildfires annually.
Fields added that to be prepared for wildfires, people should have an evacuation plan and have a place to stay in case evacuation centers are not set up right away.
“Just knowing that you have that plan reduces a lot of anxiety,” Fields said.
Deegan said he recommends people in the valley who are sensitive to smoke keep air purifiers or carbon filters in their home.
“Ultimately, we really recommend neighbor-helping-neighbor,” Harrison said. “Work together as neighborhoods. Start the conversations within your neighborhood regarding wildfire preparedness. Get familiar with Ready-Set-Go and all of the aspects of that. Start preparing go bags. Make a list of important items that you will want to ensure that you’re taking with you or that are taken care of if you do have to go.”
There are also many ways officials are preparing for fires this summer.
“We do have the technology to track those thunderstorms as they come into our areas and prepare for them, repositioning sources and whatnot as those thunderstorms come through. Depending on what we get, we’re ready to hit those full force,” Fields said.
Harrison also said the Eugene-Springfield area has operational planning in place at all times.
“We’re currently in the process of re-evaluation of evacuation zones,” he said. “For us, it’s a continuous thing. Our training and preparation never stops.”
Despite this, Gavin said he thinks power utilities need to heed forecasts of high winds by shutting down power to advert power line ignitions, as is done in California.
“We now have red flag warnings and burn bans, but we need to address all potential sources of ignition during high winds,” Gavin said. “The most tragic fires have been these power lines that set fires in high wind events.”
If severe wildfires continue to occur, Gavin said Oregon may experience reburns of previous wildfires in three or four years.
A small fire broke out last Tuesday, May 18, near Fall Creek Trail— the same site of the Jones Fire in 2017. Before that, the Clark Fire burned there in 2003.
More resources for fire preparedness and prevention can be found on the City of Eugene website.
